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Wild Big Cats In Australia. . .

I'm sure I've seen this on here before but I just can't seem to find it. I just thought some might be interested in this sighting, wasn't very publicised but just iof anyones interested . . . feel free to move it if there is another thread about this. . .

There have long been stories of Pumas in the Grampians in western Victoria - apparently one was kept as a mascot by American servicemen at a base there, and was subsequently set free when they closed the base.

There are always reports from farmers near the mountains of sheep being mauled by a large carnivore and large "cat like" footprints in the mud.

A successful Freedom of Information request has shown recently that the New South Wales government has been maintaining a secret file on sightings of a big cat in the outer north-western part of Sydney. (Secret, presumably, because they don't want to have to do anything about it until they have to.)

The file apparently details in excess of 190 sightings by witnesses classed as "reliable."

On the subject of cats - there are also a lot of feral cats around - I've seen large ones which are substantially bigger than your typical domestic cat - they survive and breed in urban areas and are known to be troublesome - especially to local wildlife.

I'm not talking about "strays", I'm talking about cats that are completely wild and survive and breed on their own. There was one report I saw on TV a couple of years back which showed footage of a larger than usual feral cat in one part of Australia (I don't remember where) - probably stood about 2 foot tall. Might have just been a once-off freak of nature, they only had footage of the one larger one.

There are a lot of people who believe there are big cats out there. I like to keep an open mind and would like to see some actual evidence.

A couple of years ago someone shot one. He claimed it was running at him when he shot it, and the head was blown to pieces. He threw the cacass in the creek to feed the eels. He kept the tail as it was very long and it was DNA tested. The reported tests said that it was a 97 % match to a domestic cat so was just a large feral cat. This result never seems to be questioned but I thought that our DNA was a 99% match to a Chimpanzee. ?? I would have thought they would want a 100% match if it was the same species.

feral cats are a big problem all over the world, from eating island fauna to hybridising with Scottish wildcats to spreading disease to Iriomote cats. Australia tends to produce some really big feral cats for some reason, more so than other places around the world. Other definite introduced wild cat populations include jaguarundis and ocelots in Florida.

The UK has exotic cats turning up regularly (or at least more regularly than they should!). Quite amazingly, representatives of almost a quarter of all the small cat species have turned up at one time or another in the wild in the UK, including lynxes, serval, caracal, jungle cat, leopard cat and ocelot.

The Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976 is generally offered as the best theory for big cats establishing in the wild in England (if they have, which really does seem unlikely, even though individual animals are certainly seen). However in Australia there doesn't seem to be any plausible excuse for big cats being out there (I don't give the 'puma mascot' theory any credit whatsoever). In NZ there is even less likelihood of wild big cats.

Plausible excuses for the existence of big cats on the loose in Australia? Well there are/were a few private animal collections around, such as Bullens at Wallacia, (and no-one seems to know what they hold there, or how many.)

I know for sure that a black leopard was recently in private ownership in the Windsor area, north-west of Sydney, owned by an animal trainer and used in commercials etc.

There was also a private zoo owned by a millionaire named Emmanuel Margolin at the foot of the Blue Mountains (a large estate called Notre Dame which was occasionally open to the public), and which had tigers and leopards. The zoo was regarded as substandard and Margolin, faced with ongoing criticism, stated that he would shoot the animals. This brought a great public outcry and didn't happen. I don't know what happened to the animals though. Maybe someone else does?

I'm not suggesting that any of these people would be careless enough to release big cats, or let them escape; I'm simply making the point that there are big cats out there in the community and not just in public zoos.

Ara, I believe the Jaguars and togers from Notre dame were sent to Mogo after being rescued by Taronga staff and RSPCA. As for the cats, I reckon there's a good chance of them being out there. There are even photos on the net, I'll try and find them again, of a outer suburbs - sydney boy that was attacked by one of these things, suffering deep lacerations to the arms, so either he needs to see a melon doctor or there is something big out there. I'm interested to know what you guys think should happen if they ever prove, trap or shoot one of these animals, if you prove they are iut there you'll have hundreds of hunters, if you trap them, then what, let them go and face public persecution? Let me know.

This MAY be just an urban myth, but I read somewhere that suspected big cat scats (droppings) were found on a farm in the outer part of Sydney and were sent to the Govt. lab. for analysis. Result came back "dog droppings".
Someone got guaranteed leopard scats from Bullens and submitted them for analysis and was also told "dog."